Vivo V5 Plus Review – Escalates Selfie Game To A Higher Price Segment

Raising stakes in its selfie-centric success formula, Vivo recently introduced its new India flagship, the Vivo V5 Plus, which is also the only contemporary phone with a dual selfie camera. This unbridled and ambitious ‘selfie phone’ surely has a lot to like, but is it the best available option for anyone willing to spend 28K on their next smartphone? Let’s try and answer that in our Vivo V5 Plus full review.

Vivo V5 Plus Design & Display

The first thing you will notice about the V5Plus is its slim, svelte figure. The 2.5D glass laden fascia is reminiscent of Vivo V5 Plus and the unabashed U-shaped antenna bands shall remind you of current iPhones, but if you can look past such derivatives, the V5 Plus is a very premium and likable handset. We were definitely charmed by its fashionable metallic physique embellished with subtle diamond cut edges.

All ports and speaker grill are housed on the bottom, the fast fingerprint reader is on the front and the camera module on the rear juts out a bit (the case bundled in the box evens out the hump, though). Very narrow bezels around the display coupled with ergonomic button placement ensure that basic one-handed usage doesn’t suffer.

As is the case with most Vivo (and other) phones, the display targets NTSC Color Gamut and thus there is a noticeable blue tint on whites and colors appear a tad over saturated. The eye-protection mode allows you to filter out blue light, and when turned on, the mild blue is replaced by an intense yellow hue. There is no color profile to choose between the two presets.

The Color calibration is something that we got used to after a while. If you are not very particular about colors on your display, you are likely to be fully satisfied. At the same time, we would have loved to see an option to switch to sRGB color profile under display settings.

Other than that, it is a sharp display which can get bright enough for times when you have to use it outdoors under direct sunlight. The auto-brightness works fine too.

Vivo V5 Plus Performance & Software

The Vivo V5 Plus is powered by Snapdragon 625 octa-core chipset paired with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage. Yes, other rivals are offering mightier chips for the same price (or perhaps lesser) but considering that the V5 Plus does everything I need it to do rather efficiently and without heating up, there is no reason to complain.

Also, moderate consumers who detest heating issues on their phones should be better off with the Snapdragon 625 rather than 652 or 820. Having said that, loading apps and switching between them is a tad faster on Snapdragon 820 phones.

The high-end games we tested on the handset including Asphalt 8, NOVA 3 and GTA ran fine. There is no visible lag in UI transitions either.

Speaking of which, the software on Vivo V5 Plus is Android Marshmallow based Funtouch OS. The UI design, however, feels a bit primitive. Particularly the notification shade. Most basic options are present, but a few aren’t where you’d expect them to be. On the positive side, there are loads of customization options and extensive gesture support that come in handy.

The Split screen mode, when turned on, allows you to attend to incoming messages by partitioning the screen. This works when you are consuming content via Youtube, Mx Player, and a few more apps.

Vivo V5 Plus Camera

Whether or not the Vivo V5 Plus makes sense for its price largely hinges on its camera performance. Ok, so if you are considering buying this phone, the selfie camera must be at the top of your mind.

The V5 Plus has a 20MP Sony sensor with wide f/2.0 aperture lens and an 8MP sidekick that helps with distinguishing objects in the foreground and in the backdrop.

If you have ever experienced a dual camera phone before, you know how this works. Just shoot in the bokeh mode and you can later toggle the false aperture between f/0.95 and f/16 to blur selective parts in the image frame. Unlike the Vivo V5, the Vivo V5 Plus indeed has those killer selfie instincts. If you can manage to avoid light sources in the background, you can click some amazing selfies with the V5 Plus. The bokeh effect for selfies is an engaging feature that makes sense to us. The moonlight flash – not so much.

The rear 16MP camera is also a significant improvement over the V5. In daylight, the camera captures stunning images with vivid details but the low light performance falls short of what we would expect at this price point.

Vivo V5 Plus Rear Camera Samples

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Vivo V5 Plus Battery Backup

The 3055mAh battery inside can comfortably last a heavy-usage day with enough juice to spare to get you through the night, and possibly to your office next morning. The battery backup, especially the standby time, is certainly better than most other phones that we have experienced in this budget and a large chunk of credit goes to the 14nm FinFET process based chipset.

Small bouts of midday charging could help you sustain longer, thanks to the dual chip fast charging (which is reasonably fast, though not as fast as the OnePlus dash charging). You can also switch to Low power consumption or Super Saver mode in crisis situations to squeeze more mileage out of it.

Miscellaneous

The fingerprint sensor on Vivo V5 Plus is truly impressive. It is mounted on the front, clubbed with the home button. You can simply touch it to unlock or to use it as a home button, and at the same time, it is an actual button that you can press (and that can be very gratifying). You can also program double press action (Settings>> Smart click) to directly fire camera app, Facebook app or to turn on/off the flashlight.

We didn’t experience any issue with call quality. 4G LTE with VoLTE works fine on both SIM cards. The HiFi music isn’t active by default as it consumes more battery. You can enable it for separate apps from Sound settings. The difference in audio quality after toggling HiFi on isn’t a huge but it’s discernible. Also, it’s worth noting that Vivo bundles good quality earphones in the V5 Plus box (along with a protective case and display protector).

Verdict

On the whole, the Vivo V5 Plus is quite capable of offering a premium smartphone experience. Like other Vivo handsets, this one is primarily targeting offline buyers, and thus the price might seem a bit high from the online perspective.

It can click awesome selfies outdoors, comes in a very premium casing, is powered by a capable chipset and has a fast fingerprint sensor. On the downside, the software needs a facelift.

Basically, if you are fond of selfies and want to buy from offline retail stores only, you can consider V5 Plus as your next phone. For everyone else, there is OnePlus 3T.

The author spent a significant chunk of his formative years resisting technology. He now keeps an eye on where the world is heading to and drives a passive pleasure from this indulgence. His passion for writing and learning is what drives him each day. When his workday ends, he enjoys spending time with family.